Template:Better source needed/doc

Not to be confused with Template:Better source requested or Template:Better sources needed.

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This template is used in articles to indicate inline citations that link to insufficiently reliable sources. Placed after the source in question, it produces a superscripted notation like this:

Ubuntu 25.04 Plucky Puffin was released on 17 April 2025.^[1]

References

1. Marston, John (17 April 2025). "Ubuntu Release Schedule". example.com.

Usage

Place the template outside the ref tags, like this:

<ref>[...body of reference...]</ref>{{Better source needed}}

You can also include a |reason= note, which displays as a tool tip upon mouse hover, to describe the issue to interested readers and to leave a record for future editors. For example, the following usage might be appropriate to the arguable claim that "Most people believe in ghosts...":

{{Better source needed|reason=Citation is the Ghostbusters' company website, which may not be entirely objective.|date=October 2026}}

General template for copy-pasting:

{{Better source needed|date=October 2026}}

Adding this template to an article places the article into Category:All articles lacking reliable references or one of its dated subcategories, all part of a collection of categories identifying articles with reliable-sourcing issues. To find all such articles, see Category:Wikipedia articles with sourcing issues.

When not to use

Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced should be removed immediately. Do not tag it: remove it. For more information, see the section on contentious material in the Biography of Living Persons policy.

Material which is doubtful and harmful may be removed immediately, rather than tagged. See Wikipedia:Citing sources § Unsourced material.

If no citation is given, use the {{Citation needed}} tag instead. If the source given is self-published, use {{Self-published inline}}. If you think the author has a conflict of interest or is otherwise too close to the subject, use {{Third-party inline}}. If the source has been surpassed by newer, reliable publications that no longer support the claim in the article, use {{Obsolete source}}.

If you have the time and ability to find a better reference, please do so. Then correct the citation yourself, or correct the article text. After all, the ultimate goal is not to merely identify problems, but to fix them.

Template data

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Better source needed in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Better source needed

This template is used in articles to identify sentences or short passages with information or analysis that has one or more inline citations to insufficiently reliable sources. It produces the super-scripted text "better source needed".

Template parameters

This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Reason	reason	A reason as to why, or for what content, a better citation is needed. Auto value The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).	String	suggested
Month and year	date	Provides the month and year of when the template was placed. Auto value {{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}	String	required

Redirects

• Template:Better source (redirect page) (← links)

See also

• {{Unreliable source?}}, inline template to flag a citation to work the reliability of which is questioned but uncertain
• {{Cite check}}, article/section may have inappropriate or misinterpreted citations
• {{Additional citation needed}}, the present source is insufficient but should be retained
• {{More citations needed}}, article/section has weak or incomplete sources/references/citations
• {{Nonspecific}}, a reference is too imprecise or ambiguous to enable it to be verified
• {{Unreferenced}}, article/section has no sources/references/citations given at all
• Wikipedia:Citing sources, especially § Unsourced material
• Wikipedia:Reliable sources
• Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup § Verifiability and sources
• Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles
• Wikipedia:Verifiability
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Reliability

Template:Better source needed invokes Module:Navbox using Lua.

Usage

This template can be used to make a standard navigation box. It is intended for use within another template that standardises the title and contents of the box (see Template:ShipNavbox). This template SHOULD NOT be used directly within articles, as it creates a maintenance burden to do so whenever the contents of the box have to be updated.

The purpose of this template is to standardise the attributes of all navigation boxes, for example, their colours and other CSS attributes. The template is fairly simple, and could be extended to add other features in the future. Using this template allows changes to be implemented much quicker and easier than editing each template separately.

Syntax

{{navbox
|state      = uncollapsed, collapsed, plain, autocollapse (default)
|name       = mandatory - name of the template
|style      = optional - style for the whole table
|title      = mandatory - navbox header
|gtitleN    = optional - title of N-th group of items
|styleN     = optional - style for groupN; i.e. text-align
|groupN     = mandatory - list of groups of items
|fstyle     = optional - style for footer ; i.e. text-align
|footer     = optional - navbox footer
}}

• Groups: Currently there is no technical limit to the maximum number of groups.
  • Groups of items can be added as parameters: group1, group2, group3, ... up to groupN.
• Group title: Each group has its own title parameter: gtitle1, gtitle2, gtitle3, ... up to gtitleN. Note that the default width for the first column is 15%.
• Group style: Style may also be customised to each group in: style1, style2, style3, ... up to styleN.
  • Note that neither the title nor the items have any wiki-links built into the template. As a result, users of the template are free to use wiki-links as they wish.
• Line breaks: Line-breaks (<br />) are unnecessary, as text wrapping is done automatically by the template. This also includes links and text in gtitleN and groupN.
• Bullets: Create unordered lists with lines beginning with *.
• Pipe links: Because of the nature of template syntax, it may be necessary to use Template:! ({{!}}).

States

• Autocollapse: By default, the state of a navbox is "autocollapsed". This means that if the number of navboxes in a page exceeds the maximum allocation of the collapsible navboxes, then the remaining navboxes are collapsed automatically. For more information (or to change the setting), see MediaWiki:Common.js.
  • Currently, the autocollapse allocation is 2 (see MediaWiki:Common.js). This means that if there are 3 navboxes in a page, the third and subsequent navboxes will be collapsed automatically.
• Uncollapsed: Forces the navbox to be displayed.
  • All of the navboxes in this documentation are in the uncollapsed state.
• Collapsed: The reverse of uncollapsed. Forces the navbox to be hidden instead.
  • Navboxes with a height of more than 300 pixels will also be collapsed automatically. For more information (or to change the setting), see MediaWiki:Common.js.
• Plain: Removes the "show/hide" link.

Sub-groups

• For larger navboxes, it may be necessary to include sub-groups within a particular group of items. It is also possible to collapsible navboxes within the parent navbox, see Collapsible sub-groups.
• To create sub-groups within {{navbox}}, certain parameters are to be included:
  • The parent navbox group (i.e. group2 in the example below) requires the type parameter (gtype2 = Subgroup).
  • The nested navbox (sub-group) requires the inclusion of the sub-group parameter (subgroup = yes). This enables the template to differentiate between the sub-group and the parent navbox.

{{navbox
|name    =
|title   =
|gtitle1 =
|group1  =
|gtitle2 =  
|gtype2  = Subgroup (mandatory)
|group2  = 
  {{navbox
  |subgroup = yes (mandatory)
  |gtitle1  = 
  |group1   =
  |gtitle2  = 
  |group2   = 
  }}
}}

Collapsible sub-groups

• For extremely long navboxes, it is recommended to use collapsible navboxes within the parent navbox. Further sub-groups can then be added to these collapsible navboxes.
• To create collapsible sub-groups within {{navbox}}, these parameters need to be included:
  • The parent navbox is almost always uncollapsed (state=uncollapsed).
  • The parent navbox group (i.e. group1 in the example below) requires the type parameter (gtype1 = Subgroup).
  • The nested collapsible navbox requires the inclusion of the collapsible parameter (collapsible = yes). This enables the template to differentiate between the collapsible navbox and the parent navbox.
  • The nested collapsible navbox is forcefully collapsed (state=collapsed).

{{navbox
|state  = uncollapsed
|name   = 
|gtype1 = Subgroup
|group1 = 
  {{navbox
  |collapsible = yes
  |state   = collapsed
  |title   = 
  |gtitle1 = 
  |group1  = 
  |gtitle2 = 
  |group2  = 
  }}
}}

Use of images

• The use of images in navboxes is permitted, but please resize the images to keep them small. Inventory-sized images (25-30 pixels) are recommended.
• Please use {{t|plink}} to create links with images. Use {{t|plink}} for any case where text is not desired after the link. It functions the same as {{t|plink}}, but it does not produce a wikilink in text. Use {{t|chatl}} to link chatheads. These templates create links for both the image and text (except for {{t|plink}}) using far less wikicode than the standard syntax.

Link and file share the same name

{{plink|Item}}

File name differs from the link

{{plink|Item|File}}

Link and file share the same name, but different text is desired to display

{{plink|Item|alt=Text}}

File name differs from the link and different text is desired to display

{{plink|Item|File|alt=Text}}

Categorising

Navboxes are very useful for transcluding categories onto a large number of pages that share both a trait and the navigation box. For example: Template:ShipNavbox transcludes Category:Ships onto every page that uses it.

There are 2 methods of categorising pages with navboxes:

The first way is with {{t|Ctg}}. This is the preferred method, and can be used in most cases. The rules and operations for the Category handler template are very simple; however, they are enough to produce the desired results on most pages.

Categorisation should only be used on a template for large-scale addition. It is unhelpful, for example, to use a rule that only applies to 1 page.

Examples

To see the following navboxes in action, see Template:Navbox.

Single line navbox with centered list

{{navbox
|name    = 
|title   = 
|style1  = text-align:center
|group1  =
}}

Navbox with standard footer

{{navbox
|name    = 
|title   = 
|gtitle1 = 
|group1  = 
|footer  = Centered footer
}}

Navbox with styled footer

{{navbox
|name    = 
|title   = 
|gtitle1 = 
|group1  = 
|fstyle  = text-align:right
|footer  = Right-aligned footer
}}

Multiple line navbox

{{navbox
|name    = 
|title   = 
|gtitle1 = Group title 1
|group1  = 
|gtitle2 = Group title 2
|group2  = 
|gtitle3 = Group title 3
|group3  = 
}}

Collapsed navbox

{{navbox
|state   = collapsed
|name    = 
|title   = 
|style1  = text-align:center
|group1  = 
}}

Plain navbox with Tnavbar

{{navbox
|state   = plain
|name    = 
|title   = 
|style1  = text-align:center
|group1  = 
}}

Plain navbox without Tnavbar

{{navbox
|state   = plain
|title   = 
|style1  = text-align:center
|group1  = 
}}

Complicated navbox

{{navbox
|state   = uncollapsed
|name    = 
|title   = 
|gtitle1 = Level 1 Title 1
|group1  = 
|gtitle2 = Level 1 Title 2
|group2  = 
|gtitle3 = Level 1 Title 3
|group3  = 
|gtitle4 = Level 1 Title 4
|group4  = 
|gtitle5 = Level 1 Title 5
|gtype5  = Subgroup
|group5  = 
  {{navbox
  |subgroup = Yes
  |gtitle1  = Level 2 Title 1
  |group1   =
  |gtitle2  = Level 2 Title 2
  |group2   =
  |gtitle3  = Level 2 Title 3
  |gtype3   = Subgroup
  |group3   = 
    {{navbox
    |subgroup = Yes
    |gtitle1  = Level 3 Title 1
    |group1   =
    |gtitle2  = Level 3 Title 2
    |group2   =
    }}
  |gtitle4  = Level 2 Title 4
  |group4   = 
  }}
|gtitle6 = Level 1 Title 6
|group6  = 
|gtitle7 = Level 1 Title 7
|group7  = 
|fstyle  = 
|footer  = 
}}

Preventing unwanted documentation

The Navbox template's documentation is automatically transcluded under the navbox on any Template namespace page. It is not transcluded when used as a sub-group or collapsible sub-group template (subgroup= yes or collapsible=yes).

Should the documentation appear when it is unwanted, it can be hidden by setting the doc parameter doc=no on the template. In most cases, the doc parameter is NOT used and the parameter is removed completely.